


Set in Stone

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Time Traveler's Wife Fusion, Angst and Feels, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Explanations, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Past Derek Hale/Paige, Past Kate Argent/Derek Hale, Pre-Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), The Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Time Travel, Warning: Kate Argent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24867982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Talia is born on January 11, 1959, no one knows about time travel. Eight years later, Talia hears whispers of wolves who get unstuck from time from the alphas who visit her family. This is why, when it happens to Derek, Peter, and Cora, she is ready.A Time Traveler's Wife AU.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 20
Kudos: 186





	Set in Stone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cupidsbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidsbow/gifts).



> Some time, in 2014, I decided to join the Teen Wolf Holiday Exchange and ended up writing this sterek fic for cupidsbow. Then 2016 or so me decided to take it down. I found it four days ago, just sitting in one of my old folders and decided to put it back up. I figure, 2014 me worked really hard on this and current me doesn't see the harm so here we are. 
> 
> This was my attempt at reconciling the Teen Wolf timeline and trying to explain away the discrepancies so even though there's time travel, nothing really changes from canon. 
> 
> **Warning:** There's a lot of discussion of the Hale Fire and all that entails, including canon deaths.

When Talia is born on January 11, 1959, no one knows about time travel. 

Eight years later, Talia hears whispers of wolves who get unstuck from time from the alphas who visit her family. Talia is eight years old at the time, and she doesn't know why the older wolves look at her as though she's hiding something. No one will tell her what they know, and though Talia is young, she understands it's not her place to ask. Not yet.

When Claudia's born that same year, Talia doesn't know who she is, but Claudia's birth is important, if to no one else then to the son Talia will have years later.

-

_October 27, 1976_

Talia is seventeen when Peter is born. He's her only sibling and from the moment of his birth, she knows she must protect him. He's too little, too fragile. Her mother hasn't been able to carry a child to full term for seventeen years. Peter is the closest thing to a miracle Talia's family has ever experienced. She loves him even when he's screaming his lungs out, his face red, tiny fists clenched so tight Talia's afraid he'll hurt himself. 

"He's yours," her mother says.

Talia is seventeen years old and she understands. Peter belongs to the pack she will lead. She is his alpha and though her parents are human, she and Peter are not. No one knows how wolves are born, but Talia's aunts and uncles are wolves and now, so is Talia and her brother.

She's seventeen when Talia understands that she will be someone great. She can already feel it in her blood. With every one of Peter's wails, she feels the power coursing through her. Betas make her stronger, she knows, but it feels different with Peter. She feels like she's fighting him just as much as he's making her stronger..

-

_1982_

Richard is human, but he doesn't run away when Talia tells him about werewolves. Peter likes him and so when Richard asks, Talia says yes. 

They get married September 30, 1982. She's twenty-three and Richard's twenty-five. She's his alpha and when he says yes, Talia feels the power in her veins settling, as though Richard is a counterweight to Peter. It feels right. And when 6-year-old Peter walks down the aisle to hand over the wedding bands, Talia knows this is where she's meant to be. 

-

_1984_

Laura is born on a clear day in May, two years after the Hales get married. She's beautiful and strong and when Talia sees her daughter for the first time she thinks, _she will be our alpha._

-

1985

Cora is born March 4th, after twenty hours and three scares. She's smaller than average and her heart doesn't beat as strong as it's supposed to, but Cora opens her eyes in Talia's arms, and Talia knows Cora will survive. 

-

_1985 / 2016_

  
_2016_

Peter is a child, alone and afraid in a town that's not his home but looks like it. He's wearing his school uniform, pressed khakis and a white button-down shirt. Just a few moments ago, Peter was carrying lunch that Talia made for him on his way to school. He was walking along the edge of the woods, with his backpack slung over his left shoulder, as he'd tried to eat his breakfast on the way.

Now, he's in front of a convenience store, his hands shaking as he tries to understand what the little square of texts in one of the open newspapers means.

> **Peter Hale, 40, of Beacon Hills, California, died March 12, 2016.**  
>  Peter Hale was born October 27, 1976 in Beacon Hills, California, the son of the late Mary and Daniel Hale. He was the youngest of two siblings. In 2005, Peter Hale survived the fire that killed his sister and most of his family. He is survived today by his nephew, Derek Hale. 

  
The picture next to the text is of a man that has Peter's eyes, but he's older, and Peter knows that he is this man. As impossible as that may be, he can recognize himself, and he knows what this means.

He is ten years old and he will not live past forty.

-

_June 6, 1986_

It's afternoon and Peter has been missing since yesterday morning. Talia is twenty-seven. She's strong, stronger than all the other alphas she's met since she was old enough to claim a pack. She should be able to protect her family, but Peter is missing and she doesn't know what to do.

Cora screams in her crib and Laura won't stay still. Richard's at work and Talia's parents are away with her uncles. She's alone, Peter's gone, and Talia's never felt so useless in her life. She sits with her head in her hands and waits. 

-

He comes back a little after four in the afternoon, wearing his uniform, unharmed. 

Talia sees him first because now that Richard is home, she's outside, hoping to catch a scent. She's looking for anything that might help, past the little stretch of woods where she found Peter's backpack and lunch. While she searches, Peter steps out from behind a group of trees, as calm as if he'd just left. 

When Talia gets to him, he's shaking so badly his teeth are chattering. "Peter," she says, her voice hard with fear.

He turns his wide eyes to her, shivers, and throws up.

-

Peter has decided that he won't tell Talia what he saw. He tells her about time traveling to 2016 and how different it had looked. There had been a convenience store where the ice cream parlor was now. He tells her about the newly paved street he'd been on, about how the air had smelled a little differently, as though too thick.

She listens and Peter can't tell if she believes him or not, not until she pulls him into a hug and assures him that she'll find out what this is. Peter hugs her back, afraid and so alone. He doesn't know why he doesn't tell her.

He tries to, as they walk back to the Hale house. But every time Peter looks at her, he can't. Talia is strong and beautiful, her hand warm around Peter's smaller hand. He watches her as they walk and he sees his alpha. When he looks at her, Peter knows Talia will never die. 

He holds her hand tighter. He can almost hear Deaton as though he were right there next to Peter. _Alphas are hard to kill_ , Deaton has said. _Alphas live long if they are strong_. 

He walks with Talia. She asks him questions, tells him that she'll talk to Deaton. Peter lets her voice wash over him. He trusts her. He believes her. She won't let anything happen to him, and he tries to tell her again, opens his mouth to do it, and then, just, doesn't.

He stops walking just once when they're almost back at the house. There's something he has to tell her, he thinks, his memories of the last two days already fuzzy. Something about a fire. But they make it back home and everyone is loud and close, and Peter forgets.

-

Peter is a time traveler.

Deaton tells Talia that some wolves can get unstuck, that they don't follow a linear timeline. He tells her that sometimes Peter will disappear, that no one, not even Peter, knows where he'll end up. Deaton tells Talia that maybe Peter isn't the only one. She tries not to think of it as a warning, especially when she explains to Peter what's happening to him. 

"So everything I see is true?" Peter asks her.

"'Fraid so, kiddo," Talia says. "But at least you know you'll be around in 2016."

Peter doesn't say anything else after that.

-

_April 3, 1987_

Talia is alone in the kitchen. Richard's at work and her parents won't fly back to Beacon Hills until she's further along in her pregnancy. Richard's parents are set to come after the baby is born. Peter's at school until five and Cora and Laura are upstairs sleeping. It's a calm day, the sun just beginning to lower behind the trees in the forest.

Talia leaves the house through the kitchen door, careful to leave it open even though she'd be able to hear Cora and Laura even with the door closed. She walks around the house to the front steps, climbs up to the porch, and sits on the porch swing. The sunlight is warm on her face and there's a spring breeze blowing through the clearing where the Hale House sits. 

She has her eyes closed, a hand on her flat stomach, already fiercely protective of the child that's growing inside of her. She's barely a month pregnant and she hasn't told Richard. For now, this is her secret to keep.

It's quiet in the clearing, except for the faraway sounds of flying birds and grazing animals. The silence makes the next sound she hears seem overly loud. It sounds like a vacuum set on high, just one sharp inhale of air followed by a thump. She hears a heartbeat and picks up an unfamiliar scent.

Talia's eyes snap open. There's a man wearing jeans and a dark green t-shirt on his hands and knees in the lawn in front of her. He's watching her, grief etched into every corner of his face. There are tears at the corner of his light eyes. The pain in his face makes her hesitate for a second.

"Mom?" he whispers.

Talia swears she feels the way the word spreads out into the space between them, filling everything up with the ache in the man's voice. She puts a hand to her stomach and the man sees, sudden understanding coming over his face. 

"You're pregnant," he says, awed.

That snaps Talia out of her trance. She half-snarls a warning, her bones already shifting as she jumps over the porch to her right. The man holds out a hand towards her, but Talia ignores him. She makes for the open kitchen door, shutting it behind her as she puts herself between it and the man out in the yard.

He hasn't moved and Talia doesn't know if she should go back and protect the front door or the side door. There are too many ways to get into the house and not enough people around to protect it. 

"I'm not going to hurt you," the man calls. "Please. I...I know you. My name's Derek."

Talia squares her shoulders. She's a well-respected alpha and an alpha like her doesn't hide. She eases back her transformation, tries to look older than twenty-eight, and walks back around the house. The man, Derek, is standing now, his eyes drinking her in. There's desperation in the way he looks her over. His hands are shaking and Talia doesn't know who she reminds this man of but she doesn't like the way he looks at her.

"What do you want?" she asks, her voice sharp.

Derek flinches, catches himself, and laughs. "I…" he stops. "It's been a really long time since you talked to me like that."

She stares at him, hard and unblinking.

"I'm your son," he says. "From the future. I'm like Peter."

Talia narrows her eyes as she looks him over. The longer she looks, the more she sees it, in the edges of his face, the shape of his eyes and his hair. Except for his nose. He has his father's nose. 

"You're my son?" she asks, still wary.

"Yes," Derek says, quickly. "You're pregnant. Maybe with Laura or Cora. Maybe me."

Talia relaxes despite herself. "I named my son Derek?" she asks. 

"I…" Derek says, wiping at his eyes. "You do. I'm sorry, I just…It's been a really long time."

Talia frowns. "You're my son," she says. "How long could it have possibly been?"

He looks at her and there's so much raw pain in his face that Talia finds herself taking a step forward.

"Am I mad at you?" she asks. "Or are you mad at me?"

Derek, her son, nods and looks away. "Something like that," he says. 

She waits for him to turn back to her and when he does, she can see how hard he's trying to hold his emotions in check. 

"I'm so sorry," he tells her, his voice cracking on the last word. "I'm so sorry."

Talia doesn't know what she's supposed to forgive Derek for, but she knows, even now, that whatever happened can't be his fault. She wants to ask him questions, wants him to sit down and explain to her why he's like Peter, if Deaton figures it out later. But she knows it's not the time. She'll ask him later, when he doesn't look seconds from breaking down.

"Hey," she says, moving forward. "Derek?"

He looks up at her, his eyes wide when he sees how close she is. Talia smiles tentatively at him and when he doesn't move away, she wraps her arms around him. He exhales loudly, melting against her, his head coming to rest on her shoulder. He's so much bigger than she is, broad around the shoulders and hot to touch. 

"It's okay," she tells him, smoothing back his hair. "I promise that whatever you did, I forgive you. I promise you I'm not mad. I'd never be mad."

Derek makes a small, hurt sound. Talia wants to ask him what happened. She wants to know what hurt the little boy growing inside her. She says nothing though, because Derek doesn't need this now. 

"What if it was something bad?" Derek asks, and he sounds so much like Peter did when he first jumped that Talia feels as though her heart is breaking. 

"Nothing you can do is going to make me stop loving you," she says. "I promise you. I love you."

Derek closes his eyes but doesn't pull away. "What if people died?"

Talia inhales sharply. Derek starts pulling away, misinterpreting her silence. She lets him go, too stunned to react fast enough. He stands in front of her, his hands in the pocket of his jeans, head down, body shaking.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, almost too low for her to hear. 

"No," Talia says. "No. It's not that."

Derek looks at her but she knows he doesn't believe her. She wishes she knew a better way to tell him that if she weren't an alpha, her eyes would bleed blue, would have since she was eighteen and killed that rogue omega who wandered too close to Beacon Hills. But he doesn't know and she won't tell him now. Not if her future self hasn't.

"Derek, look at me," she says, instead.

He looks at her, so much trust in his eyes. Talia presses her hand to her stomach and wishes with all her heart that she could find a way to take away all her baby's pain. 

"Sometimes, people die," she says, slow so that he understands. "Sometimes, there's nothing we can do to save them. And sometimes, to save the people we love, other people have to die. But whatever happens, no matter what, you wait until the very last minute, until the only option left is to kill. Do you understand?"

He looks at her, nods.

"And if you can't," Talia goes on. "If you make the mistake of killing first and asking questions later, then you do everything you can to make it right. But you never, _never_ apologize to me for the mistakes you've made. No matter what you do, I'm still going to love you. Your father is still going to love you. I promise."

Derek is silent for a long time. He sits next to her on the porch swing as the sun gets lower in the sky. Cora makes a soft noise from upstairs and that seems to pull Derek out of his thoughts.

"Thank you," he says.

Talia smiles at him and he stares as though trying to memorize everything. Then, he smiles back so bright, it lights up his whole face. 

"You look like me," Talia tells him, suddenly proud.

"Yeah," Derek says. "I've been told."

"But you got your dad's nose. Too bad for you."

He laughs and Talia stays with him out on the porch a little longer. When Laura starts padding down the stairs, she invites him inside. He goes wide-eyed again when he sees Laura in her blue dress and rumpled hair, clinging to Talia's leg. 

"She's going to be your alpha, one day," Talia says, watching Derek. "That's your uncle, Derek," she says to Laura. 

Laura looks at Derek, her little hands balled into the fabric of Talia's jeans. 

"Go say hi," Talia says.

"Hi," Laura says, voice small.

Talia watches Derek look at little Laura then back at Talia. "She's so little."

"I'm three," Laura says.

Cora wakes up a few minutes later. She takes one look at Derek, hears the word "uncle" and has no problem dragging Derek around the house. Laura follows them into the living room and Talia watches them from the doorway. This is going to be a great story to tell them when they're all older, she thinks. 

"How old are you?" she asks Derek.

He looks up from where Cora's trying to get her pink princess dress over his head. "Twenty-six," he says. 

"So Cora is what? Twenty-seven. And Laura is Twenty-nine?"

Derek turns towards Cora. "Yes," he says. 

Talia walks into the room, trying not to laugh when Laura starts piling teddy bears into Derek's lap. Cora gives up on the dress and sits down on the floor across from Derek, arranging the stuffed animals into lines. 

"What are they like?" Talia asks. She's picturing her little girls, grown-up into beautiful women. She can imagine Laura, independent, but so aware of her sister with how protective she is already. 

"I bet everyone says Laura's going to be an amazing alpha," Talia says. "Bet I'm jealous."

Derek laughs. "Yeah," he says, pushing over Cora's line of stuffed animals. 

Cora makes a frustrated noise and shoves the stuffed animals back at Derek.

"I bet Cora and you fight all the time."

"She always wins," Derek says.

Talia narrows her eyes at Derek. "You're not really giving me much."

"No," Derek agrees. "I can't really."

"Why not?" Talia asks. She's thinking of Peter, of what he isn't telling her.

"Because sometimes it's better to be surprised," Derek says. "In my time, all of this already happened. Nothing I do is going to change that. Trust me. If it could change, I'd have changed it. And if it can't be changed then why ruin the surprise?"

"Okay," Talia says, leaning towards Derek and raising an eyebrow. "So just tell me this, do you have a girlfriend? Do I like her?"

"I did," Derek says, and he seems too careful as he looks at Talia. 

"What?" she asks.

"I have a boyfriend now," he says, finally.

"Oh," Talia says, filing away that information for later. "Well, do I like him?"

Derek exhales loudly, smiling so wide Talia can't help but grin back at him. "Yeah," he says. "I think you do."

-

Derek stays for a week.

They've all gotten used to him and though he doesn't say much, he seems happier the longer he stays. He laughs openly, eager to get any bit of information from Richard and Talia. He asks about his grandparents, about how long it took for Talia to be able to change into a full wolf. 

"Everyone respects you," Derek tells her on his third night. "Even alphas who've never been to Beacon Hills."

Talia tries to look less proud than she feels. Richard rolls his eyes at her when Derek can't see and Talia loves him so much. She nods her head at Derek and Richard nods back.

"We did good," Richard tells her that night. 

Talia looks over to where Derek is playing with Cora and Laura as he talks to Peter. "I know," she says. 

-

"I'll be sixteen," Derek says on his sixth night. "I'll be gone from November 11 to November 15. I'll be in my future and my friends are going to take care of me. When I get back, you give me the notebook that I'll give you tomorrow."

Talia nods. She can see how harried Derek looks as though he has someplace to go. "Are you leaving soon?" she asks.

"I think so," Derek says. 

He doesn't seem sad, just matter-of-fact, and Talia supposes that's the way his life has to be. She thinks of Peter, of how much she worried when he was gone. She thinks of her older self, how she doesn't know where her son is, doesn't know if he's safe.

"You have to go home," Talia says. 

Derek looks hurt. "I will."

"Oh no, honey," she says, moving to cup Derek's cheek. "It's just, we're all probably worried sick back home. We don't know where you went. I remember when Peter," she pauses. "Do you know if Peter jumps again?"

"Three more times," Derek says. "Once when he's sixteen and again when he's eighteen. Cora too."

Talia blinks. "Cora too?"

"You send her to summer camp when she's seventeen. She's gone for a month, but it's okay, she's with me."

Talia nods. "I'm going to need you to write this all down for me," she says. "I need something to look at when my daughter and son go missing. Does Laura jump too?"

"No," Derek says. "No, she's normal."

"Thank god," Talia says. 

-

On the seventh day, Derek hands Talia two notebooks. One, he makes her promise not to read. The second he says is for her, so she doesn't ever forget that they'll be fine. His voice cracks towards the end and Talia hugs him. 

When he disappears, just as the sun sets, she opens the notebooks. He never writes it down, but Talia knows.

-

_December 27, 1987_

When Derek is born, Talia loves him so much she thinks her heart is going to burst with it. She loves him the way she loved Laura and Cora when she first saw them, the way she loved Peter when her mother handed him to her and told him he was hers to protect. She cradles Derek in her arms and sees all of her children there. She will protect him, she vows. She will make sure he is safe and happy. She rocks him to sleep and promises the little bundle in her arms that she will never give him a reason to doubt her love for him.

-

_March 25, 1992_

Claudia became a Stilinski on June 3, 1989. 

On March 25, 1992, at exactly 2 p.m., while her husband is still at work, a man knocks on her front door. She sees him through the living room window. The man is in his late forties, broad-shouldered, gray hair spread out across his head, and looking relaxed, almost at home. Claudia thinks maybe he used to live in the house before it was sold, and she makes her way over to the front door. 

He looks familiar close up, like Talia Hale who Claudia sees every morning as she takes her children to school. The man at the door has Richard Hale's eyes, but he looks so much like Talia that Claudia thinks this is her brother. 

She pulls open the door but keeps her screen door shut. 

"Hi," she says.

"Hello," the man answers. "I'm Derek Hale. I'm…"

The man's—Derek's—pause is too long. He looks at Claudia, as though deciding whether it's safe to tell her. 

"You're related to Talia Hale?" Claudia says, not sure why the man seems so nervous.

"Yes," he says. "I'm her son."

Claudia's disbelief must show on her face because Derek steps closer to the door. "I know it's hard to believe," he says. "But I promise you I'm Talia's son. I'm...I can travel back or forward in time along my timeline."

He stops, frowns. "I know it sounds hard to believe."

Claudia thinks about the wolves she sometimes hears in the forest. There are no wolves in Beacon Hills, people say. But Claudia has seen them, some with great, big, fluorescent blue eyes. Once, one with red eyes that were far more intelligent than a normal wolf. Claudia hears whispers around town sometimes, about wolf spirits who protect the town. She doesn't know why, but she is a believer.

"How do I know you aren't lying to me?" she asks, just to make sure.

"You married Sheriff Stilinski on March 3rd, 1898. You told me that on the day you were supposed to marry him, you left through the hotel window and ended up half an hour out of Beacon Hills in your blue jeep. You only went back because you forgot your purse, but you said," here Derek pauses to make sure Claudia's paying attention. "You told me that your mother caught you on your way back out. She made you put your dress on and she walked you down to the hotel ballroom, and you said that when you saw the Sheriff standing at the altar, you just knew. You said, 'Derek, you'll know. You'll just know.'"

"I told you that?" Claudia asks over the thumping of her heart. "I've never told anyone that."

"You never do," Derek says. "But you tell me."

"How?"

"This is my second time meeting you," he says. "I met you when I was twenty-eight, in 1994. I didn't know where I was, but you didn't kick me out. You just talked to me and asked me to help you with some things. Before I left, you told me that when I met you in 1992, I should tell you about your wedding day. You said you'd believe me."

Claudia stares. She can't help it. As unbelievable as what Derek is saying sounds, she's never told anyone the story of her wedding day. She'll never tell anyone because that's hers alone. But Derek knows, and he says she told him, and there's no other way, no explanation that makes sense to Claudia except the one Derek is providing. So she steps away from the screen door, and lets him in.

"Thank you," Derek says, walking inside.

Claudia motions to the living room couch and Derek sits. He looks comfortable there, too, as though he's used to Claudia's living room.

"How often do we see each other?" she asks.

"Just twice for now. The first time for me was when I was twenty-eight. This is the second time."

Claudia nods. "So why do you look so comfortable on my couch, Derek Hale?"

Derek's face goes fond, the earnestness gone as he remembers something. Claudia finds herself looking again because Derek Hale is handsome and he knows her. He knows things about her that she'd never told anyone and she wonders how he became important enough for her secrets.

"I don't have a lot of time," Derek says. "I just want to let you know that two years from now, you're going to have a son. His name's Stiles. I want you to know that you'd be so proud of him. He's going to have two beautiful children and they're going to be so happy. He's going to make me so happy, Claudia. I promise you, he's going to be fine. He and Scott are going to do amazing things together. Scott's going to love him almost as much as I do, and I promise you, it's all going to be okay."

Claudia doesn't say anything for a long time after Derek's finished talking. She takes a seat next to him on the couch, her left hand on her stomach. She imagines a little boy named Stiles who grows up and has a best friend named Scott. She understands that Derek is telling her that Stiles grows up to have beautiful children and that Derek is the one raising those children with Stiles. She sits on the couch, terrified by the way Derek talked about it, as though Claudia won't be part of her son's life in the future. 

"When does it happen?" she asks, finally.

Derek stills beside her. Claudia turns her head, her hands shaking. She's trying so hard not to cry and when she sees Derek, the expression on her face is all the confirmation she needs. 

"Is he…" she pauses, swallows. "Does he remember me?"

"He'd never forget you," Derek tells her.

He reaches over to take her hand and Claudia lets him. She wants to scream and cry, wants to shove Derek out the door for coming into her home and ruining her life. She wants to ask when, what time, where her husband is, whether her parents ever forgive her. But, at the same time, she doesn't want to know. 

"Frontotemporal dementia," Derek says, as though it's supposed to mean something to her. "You send Stiles to get you a glass of water so he doesn't see you die."

The word sounds vile in Claudia's home. There's a finality to it that makes her restless, makes her want to go walk away from Derek and then keep walking until she can outrun what he just told her. 

"He wants you to be proud of him," Derek says. 

Claudia stands. She likes the name Stiles. 

"Tell him," she pauses, her throat tight. "Tell him what he needs to hear."

Derek shakes his head. "I don't know what he needs to hear."

"Tell him I love him, " Claudia says. "Tell him I love his children and that it's okay."

She looks at Derek and hates him because she doesn't know him, but he gets to know her son. "Tell him I love you too," she says. 

Derek opens his mouth to say something, but Claudia shakes her head. She takes a seat on the couch again, tucks her hands underneath her thighs and watches the clock ticking on the wall in front of her. 

"How old is he?" she asks.

"Forty," Derek says.

She nods, calculating in her head. She has at most, forty years with her son. It isn't enough time now that she knows. She has forty years left with her family.

"His father?" she asks, suddenly so afraid that Derek will say that John didn't make it, that they leave Stiles alone. 

"He loves the kids," Derek says, voice gentle.

Claudia turns her head away. "When you see him," she says, wiping away her tears with the back of her left hand. "Tell him I love him and that he better be taking care of himself or I'm going to kick his ass."

"I will," Derek tells her. "I promise,"

"You promise a lot of things, don't you?"

Derek nods and Claudia looks at him properly this time. She takes her time taking in the wrinkles around his eyes. He has old eyes, as though he's seen more than he should have, but there's no sadness about him. He seems content and it makes Claudia happy because if her son loves this man, then he's happy too. 

"Tell me about them," she says.

Derek does and when he vanishes from her couch a little later, Claudia stands up, wipes the tears from her eyes, and makes peace with herself.

-

_1992 / 2011_

  
_2011_

Peter is sixteen years old when he feels the beginning of his second jump. It starts with a dull ache in the back of his skull. The pain blossoms out from there to the tips of his toes, until every bone in his body feels as though it's burning. He never screams because Talia is there, her hands on his shoulders, expression forever worried. He loves her for it.

"I'll only be gone a day," Peter tells her.

She opens her mouth to say something back but Peter's already gone.

He wakes up in front of a white house with violet flowers growing along the porch pillars. It looks like wolfsbane. Peter is careful not to touch it in case it's a species he hasn't seen before. In front of him, down the white porch steps is a pool, water so clear Peter can see every empty inch. 

There's nothing around to tell him what year this is, or whose house he's in front of. All is quiet for a moment, a slight fog just beginning to roll in with the wind. 

He hears the footsteps long before the girl turns the corner. She's beautiful, with long red hair and bright red lips. She looks at Peter as though she's seen him before and Peter wishes he knew how they met. He wishes he knew what he told her to make her look at him the way she is, as though he's something precious.

She whispers her name into his ear just before she kisses him, and Peter repeats it in his head over and over until it becomes a constant stream of _Lydia, Lydia, Lydia, Lydia_.

-

The third jump takes him by surprise. His hands are still out in front of him, fingers poised as though he were still stroking Lydia's hair. Peter looks around, sees the guidance counselor's office and thinks he's back home. 

He's getting ready to leave when he sees Lydia walking down the hallway towards him. She sits in one of the chairs next to him and Peter is so glad to see her. He smiles at her and she raises her perfect eyebrows in disbelief, everything about her dripping contempt. 

"Hey," he says.

She glances at him and doesn't bother acknowledging his greeting.

"We're both at the counselor's," he tries again.

"You don't say," Lydia says, rolling her eyes and turning her head away in an exaggerated gesture. 

Peter grins. "I know why I'm here," he says, hoping she'll look at him. "But why are you?"

She lifts her head but keeps staring at the wall in front of her. Peter thinks he can smell her perfume, something flowery and pretty like her. He wants to kiss her again. And as they sit, he can't help but wonder when he meets her because she's the first bright spot in what's been a life full of nightmares. He turns, not knowing what to ask her, and their eyes meet.

"I have an acute phobia of people prying into my personal life," she says, and Peter likes her so much more for it. 

"You're cute," he tells her. "A bit narcissistic. Like me."

Lydia rolls her eyes so hard Peter wants to tell her they'll get stuck that way. She glares at him as though she knows what he's thinking and gets up. When she gets to the counselor's door, she looks back but Peter is already gone.

-

Peter opens his eyes to a large expanse of wood. It takes a minute to understand that he isn't back home yet. The woods are unfamiliar, dangerous in the dark. He's on his third jump, but he'll only be gone a day when he gets back to his time. It's disorienting when he thinks about it but Peter's long ago accepted the fact the time is not something he'll ever understand.

He stands in the clearing and when he focuses, he sees Lydia standing in front of him. She's naked and shaking from cold and fear. Peter turns away and unbuttons his shirt. He gives it to her, overly aware that he's more lanky than strong. 

Lydia puts it on and some part of Peter is pleased that she's wearing his clothes. He stares at her for a moment, looking for a hint on her face that will tell him when they meet. He wants to memorize every one of her expressions, the length of her hair. He hopes that when he finally tells her he loves her, she'll say it back.

As he watches, Lydia sways on the spot and Peter moves to help her stay up. "Are you okay?" he asks.

Lydia shakes her head. "A little dizzy," she says. 

They sit on the ground and Lydia tells Peter it's 2011, and it's unfair how everything good in Peter's life gets taken away from him. She's sixteen and he's out there somewhere, thirty-five years old. In five years, he'll be dead. 

"Peter Hale?" he asks her. "Where is he?"

"Dead," Lydia says, as though she's glad. 

Peter hugs his knees to his chest and wonders what he ever did to the beautiful girl next to him to make her glad he's dead. 

"I'm sorry," he whispers.

She turns to look at him, her green eyes lovely like the rest of her. "For what?" she asks.

"You won't remember," Peter says. 

He doesn't know for sure, but Lydia's looking at Peter and it's almost as though she can't really see him. 

"And why the hell not?" Lydia asks.

"Because you don't know how you got here," Peter says, gesturing at his shirt on Lydia. "You walked out without clothes."

"I know exactly how I got here," she says, so sure of herself. "I heard someone calling me and…" she stops.

"You won't remember," Peter says. smiling sadly. "You won't remember me."

Lydia opens her mouth to fight, probably, but Peter doesn't let her. "You're beautiful," he tells her. 

She's quiet for a moment and then she tosses her hair over her shoulder, sniffs, and says, "I know."

Peter is still laughing when he feels his fourth jump.

-

He's in a burned-down house, rotted wood making up the walls behind him. There's a man kneeling beside an open grave, the body inside burned beyond recognition. Peter gets a good look at it and moves away. 

The familiar ache starts in his head as he forces himself to turn back one last time. He sees Lydia because she moves. Her beautiful red hair is bright in the moonlight. 

"Derek," she says.

Peter glances back at the man, at the wide shoulders. He sees the grave, knows that it's him with cold certainty. 

Lydia sees him, but the ache in Peter's head is a burning pain and he only flashes her a smile before he's gone. 

-

_1992_

Talia is waiting for him when Peter gets back. She catches him as he collapses to the floor, body so worn out he can barely stand. Talia puts him to bed and doesn't ask questions. She'll want to know later but for now, Peter has peace.

He lies in bed, the covers pulled up to his chin. He's sixteen and alone. The beautiful girl with the red hair wants him dead and his nephew stood above Peter's open grave. He doesn't even get a casket. It's so absurd that that's what bothers him the most at that moment but Peter's lived a ridiculous life, moving through time in jumps. 

He turns on his side and tucks his knees close to his chest. The shirt he gave to Lydia came back with him and it's warm against his skin. He can smell her shampoo on it, something generic. He curls tighter in on himself trying not to shake. 

He's sixteen and he knows Lydia wants him dead and Derek probably killed him.

-

_March 10, 1994_

Claudia is eight months pregnant, alone in her house, and stretched out on the couch. She's exhausted because Stiles hasn't stopped moving since he got big enough to stretch. She can feel his little hands against the inside of her belly, his little legs kicking out as though he can't stay still. She can imagine him when he's old enough to walk, a little ball of energy that won't sit. She and John are never going to sleep and even though Claudia will feel it later, now it just amuses her.

She has her hand on her stomach, rubbing soothing circles when there's a knock on her backdoor. She sighs and gets up, murmuring to Stiles to keep him calm.

"Don't get excited," she says in the direction of her stomach. "It's not for you."

There's another knock just as Claudia gets to the door. She opens the door, sees the man, looks down at her stomach, and says, "Oh, guess it is for you."

"Excuse me," Derek says—because it is Derek, a younger version of him. "Can you tell me where I am?"

"Are you lost?" Claudia asks, stepping outside into the back porch. She tries not to smile as she looks over Derek. 

It's been over a year since she saw him and though she hasn't been waiting for him exactly, she's glad to see him. He's about her age this time, late twenties, maybe early thirties. He looks at ease, though there's something less calm about him than there was in his older self. There are less wrinkles around his eyes and no white hairs. Claudia knows she's staring but she wants to memorize Derek's face. She likes to think that he and Stiles will compliment each other.

"Excuse me," Derek says again.

"You're in Beacon Hills," Claudia says. "I'm Claudia Stilinski."

She sees surprise on Derek's face, his eyes going comically wide when he sees her stomach. 

"Come inside," Claudia says. "And if you don't mind, can you help me with the boxes on the porch? I'd bring them in but I'm eight months pregnant."

"Yeah, of course," Derek says.

Claudia holds the door for him as he steps inside her house. She watches him take in the couch he sat on, or will sit on. Claudia isn't sure what language to use here. He puts down the boxes and turns to her.

"You know me," he says.

"You came about a year ago but you were older. You told me to be nice to you when you came a second time."

"You're Stiles's mother."

It's not a question but Claudia nods anyway. "He's in here," she says, patting her stomach. "Won't stay still."

Derek laughs. "He never does." 

Claudia leans against the door. "Tell me," she says, suddenly ravenous for information, for anything and everything about Stiles. "What's he like?"

"I…" Derek says, pauses. "I don't know what to say."

Claudia smiles. "It's a lot, I know. You told me I was going to have a baby when I saw you a year ago. I didn't want to believe you because that would mean that you were right about me dying."

"I'm sorry," Derek says.

"It's okay," Claudia tells him. "I'm okay. I just want to know...I guess, when you have kids, you just want to know they grow up good. That all the work you put in pays off, you know?"

"I know," Derek says. 

He's quiet for a long time, and Claudia can see him staring at her stomach. She looks at him and there's a wistfulness in his eyes that she recognizes. 

"You want kids?" she asks.

"I do," Derek says, simply.

"You'll have them, one day," she tells him.

He doesn't ask her anything else and Claudia doesn't volunteer any more information. 

"He grows up good," Derek says. "Whatever you did, it works."

"Thank you," Claudia says, and she means it more than Derek can know. 

They sit quietly for a while, Claudia more comfortable than Derek probably is. Eventually, he moves to sit on the couch and Claudia swears she can see him as he'll be in a few years, happy with her son. She knows John will love Derek even if he plays hard to get in the beginning. 

"Tell me about my wedding," she says to him. "When you meet me again. Tell me about how I ran away from my wedding and how the only reason I ended up at the altar was because my mother caught me trying to leave again. Tell me that when I saw John at the altar I just knew. The same way when you're ready, you'll just know."

"You ran away?" Derek asks.

"Yes," Claudia says, smiling. "But you promised me you never told anyone when I met you."

"I won't," Derek says.

"You're a good guy, Derek," Claudia tells him. "Don't let anyone tell you you're not."

Derek is quiet again and Claudia knows she hit a nerve. 

"You don't know that," he says.

"Of course, I do," Claudia tells him. "That's why I'm letting you date my son." 

"It's not like that," Derek says, and Claudia would be offended if she weren't so amused.

"Oh, okay," she says. "I get it. You're not labeling it yet."

"It's not that," Derek says. "We're just....it's different."

"Different is good."

Derek opens his mouth, sees the eyebrow raise from Claudia, grins and shakes his head. "Yeah," he says. "It is."

Then, just like last time, he's gone.

-

_April 8, 1994_

When Claudia's baby is born, she doesn't name him Stiles even though that's what she's been calling him since she met Derek. She doesn't admit it aloud herself, but she knows that changing his name gives her hope that maybe she can change what Derek's seen.

Then John brings her home and as they stand over their tiny baby, he says, "How're we ever going to be able to pronounce his name? We're going to have to call him Stiles."

And Claudia doesn't have the heart to tell him no.

-

_1994 / 2002_

Peter has thought about killing Derek many times since he came back from 2011, but there's a difference between thinking it and actually hurting the seven-year-old boy who calls him uncle. But he's thought about it and that's why when he jumps to 2002, he asks about the girl Derek is looking at.

Her name is Paige and Derek likes her. He tells Peter everything, starting from how they met in the hallway, where Peter's and Dereks' trophies line the walls, to how he got a date with her by playing the triangle for her. Peter doesn't know why Derek tells him everything, but it's good to know that Peter hasn't damaged his relationship with Derek yet. At least up to this moment, Derek has no reason to want to kill Peter.

-

Peter doesn't really want to kill Paige but when he tells Derek that Ennis will help, Peter doesn't want Paige to live either. He stays and watches Derek holding her, hears her beg Derek to end it. He's there when Talia comes over to comfort her son. 

She looks up and sees Peter, and Peter knows as soon as their eyes meet that Talia will never trust him again.

-

When he gets back to 1994, Talia's hands on his face make Peter want to crawl under his covers and never come out. He feels ten years old again but worse because he no longer believes that Talia can save him.

-

_March 19, 2002_

Derek Hale is fourteen years old when he falls in love for the first time. Her name is Paige and she rolls her eyes when Derek bounces his basketball along the Beacon Hills hallway. He's showing off because he's good at basketball and because he's heard that girls are impressed by things like that. 

Normal girls. Cora doesn't count.

But Paige rolls her eyes and tells him that she'd never go out with him, and Derek is fourteen and high on the idea that he can do anything. He asks her out and she says yes, and they're happy because being fourteen and in love is everything to Derek then.

-

Derek trusts Peter because Peter's always been there when Derek needed something. He'd been there when Derek had turned thirteen and needed help understanding what had been happening to him under the full moon. Peter had taught him basketball and rolled his eyes whenever Cora and Derek got into arguments. Peter's the one who'd told Derek about navigating the time jumps, about how sometimes it's better to keep secrets.

"You'll figure it out," Peter is fond of saying whenever Derek asks how to control the time traveling. 

Derek doesn't question it because Peter's more than his uncle. Peter is Derek's best friend and there must be a reason why Peter doesn't tell Derek things. That's why Derek tells Peter about Paige and it turns out Peter already knows.

"You told me when I was eighteen," Peter tells him.

So when eighteen-year-old Peter finds Derek at school, Derek tells him too. Peter's the one who suggests Ennis and because Derek wants Paige to live, he says yes. 

After, he doesn't think for one second that what happens is Peter's fault.

-

When Talia finds Derek with Paige, she thinks, _this is it. This is what he was so scared of._

"My beautiful boy," she tells him. "Your eyes are beautiful."

He lets her carry him back home and she kisses him, tells him that she loves him. When Derek falls asleep, she tells Deucalion to leave. Then, she goes see Peter.

-

_2003 / 2011_

  
_2003_

Cora's mom has a notebook from an older Derek that says that from July 1, 2003 to July 31, 2001, Cora goes missing from summer camp. She's never wanted to go to summer camp but Laura, who knows about the notebook, says it'll do Cora good to get away from the house.

"You can tell me what's in-style in 2011 so that I can buy it cheap now," Laura says. 

Their mom is on Laura's side because Laura is nineteen, in college, working two part-time jobs, and is going to be alpha one day. So Cora gets put into a bus with other angry teenagers and goes off to a camp she's not going to spend any time in.

Derek who is fifteen goes see her off and laughs at her until Cora shoves him into the ground. Laura rolls her eyes and holds Derek back when he tries to go after Cora. He doesn't get to chase her down, though he probably wants to, because Cora climbs on the bus, takes a seat all the way in the back, and glares at anyone who gets even remotely close to her. 

-

She is ten minutes into her bus ride when she jumps.

-

_2011_

Cora comes to in an instant, no pain, no discomfort. She blinks and when she opens her eyes she's in a bank vault. The concrete walls are painted a dark gray and in the corner across from her, Cora can see two people huddled together. She takes a step back and they flinch. 

"Don't touch her," one of them snarls at Cora.

She sees fangs and Cora is strong but she's not strong enough to take on two werewolves yet. 

"I'm not going to touch her," she says. 

She holds her hands out in front of her and takes a careful step forward into the faint light coming in from the small window in the center of the room. The werewolf snarls again and Cora can see why when she takes her next step. Behind him, there's a girl with dirty-blonde hair and blood running down her face. Her chest is barely moving and Cora can tell from the way the boy stands over her that she's important to him.

"Going to be safe, my ass," Cora murmurs. "I'm going to fucking kill Derek."

At her brother's name, the boy freezes. It's just a second, but Cora notices. 

"You know Derek?" she asks. When the boy doesn't answer she says, "I'm his sister, Cora."

"Derek's sisters are dead," the boy says, spits it out like an accusation.

Some part of Cora knows she has to be careful with the two wolves in the room, but the boy's words are too big for the vault. She can hear her heart beating rapidly in her chest and her breaths are coming out in short gasps. She pictures Laura laughing as she'd held back Derek, pictures Teddy at home curled up with their dad. Her mother, strong and lovely. Even Peter, who Cora never really got along with, but who Derek loved. She feels like her world is falling apart even before she realizes that in 2011, she's dead too.

-

Cora's memories after she meets Boyd and Erica are fuzzy up until the time Derek comes to rescue them. She remembers different degrees of pain and Deucalion laughing at her, taunting her with promises of hurting her brother. Cora remembers Boyd trying to protect her, too, when he finally believed her. 

Cora never told him or Erica that she time jumped. She made up a story about being in South America with an Argentinian family, about not knowing Derek was alive. They believe her because Erica is dying and Boyd's attention is focused solely on keeping her alive and in trying to defend Cora when he can. 

When Derek does finally come for them, Erica's been dead three days. 

-

Peter knows what this is, and twenty-three-year-old Derek knew Cora was going to come sometime in 2011, so they manage to pull together a story that's halfway convincing. If they sometimes let things slip when discussing ages, then the kids Derek's befriended don't seem to notice. 

-

"She's my little sister, Cora," Derek says to Stiles and Scott.

Cora stands back in Derek's loft and watches the two boys. She doesn't trust them because she can tell that Scott is strong and a strong wolf is never good when he isn't part of the alpha's pack. 

Stiles, she watches, because of the way he looks at Derek.

-

At night, when they're not fighting off the alpha pack and the dark druid, Cora lets herself think about what she's learned since she came to 2011. She knows the date of the fire and what Peter did to get revenge. She doesn't ask too much because part of her doesn't want to know. She doesn't need details to know that the heaviness in Derek's expressions are because he's alone now. Peter's the last family Derek has left and Cora never liked Peter all that much.

When she learns about Paige, Cora likes Peter even less. But Stiles surprises her because despite what he's just heard, he doesn't judge Derek. And though Cora can't prove it and won't ask, she has a feeling that Stiles knows more things about Derek than he's telling everyone else.

-

Cora loves Derek even if he's a little shit who fights with her all the time back home. Even now, when he's twenty-three and she's seventeen, they understand each other best when they're seconds from yelling at each other. Except, Cora can't bring herself to really fight with Derek. Whenever she gets close, she looks at him, and he looks so lost and tired, as though just by looking at her she's hurting him. And it hurts, even if Cora can understand why he looks at her that way.

She's seventeen. She's been tortured. She watched one of her brother's betas die. She watched how the alphas made Derek kill Boyd. She knows she's going to die in the next few years, knows that when Derek turns twenty-three, it'll still hurt when he thinks of her. 

Cora has never wanted to be home so badly before. Every minute she's free, she lies in bed, closes her eyes, and tries to will herself back home. She pictures her mom and dad, Laura, Teddy, and her fifteen-year-old Derek with his obnoxious laugh. And every time when she opens her eyes, she's still in Derek's lost staring at the pipes on the ceiling.

-

When Jennifer Blake turns out to be the dark druid, Cora's angrier about Jennifer betraying Derek than she is about almost dying. 

When Derek brings her back and she finds out that he's no longer an alpha, Cora's so furious she wants to rip Peter in half. She doesn't, because Derek needs her and Cora's his older sister even if he's six years older than her. She hugs him and rocks him in her arms, calls him Der Der, the way Teddy did when he was younger.

"Don't call me that," Derek says, and it should be a happy memory for both of them, but Derek shakes in her arms and Cora holds him tighter.

"I know," she tells him. "I know."

-

They leave because Cora doesn't know how long she's going to stay in 2011 and someone needs to get Derek out of Beacon Hills. There's nothing for him in that town, no family—Peter doesn't count. The kids he turned are either dead or with Scott's pack now, and Cora isn't going to let Derek stay in a place that just holds bad memories for him.

They pack what little Cora bought since she got here, take Derek's duffle bag, and walk away from it all.

They start in Las Vegas because it's warm and Cora says she wants to see the casinos even if she can't get in. Even though she should be able to since she's technically twenty-four in 2011.

"You're seventeen," Derek tells her every opportunity he gets. "You're my little sister."

"Shut up," Cora says, and it doesn't even bother her when Derek laughs at her.

-

It's the middle of October when Cora feels the tugging in the back of her head. It's as though someone is pulling on a string that connects to the back of her head. There's no pain, just the sensation and the idea that there should be pain.

"I'm going to go back soon," she tells Derek.

They're in Seattle, sitting on the hood of Derek's new Toyota. It's raining and neither of them has an umbrella. 

"So soon?" Derek asks.

Cora nods and they turn almost at the same time. She tries to memorize every detail of his face, how there are the beginnings of frown lines on Derek's forehead.

"You need to smile more," she tells him. 

Derek grimaces and rolls his eyes but he doesn't say no.

-

Derek jumps before Cora does. It takes them both by surprise, and Cora wishes she'd known so she'd gotten her chance to say goodbye. 

Cora doesn't know where he goes or if he ever gets back because a few hours later, she goes back home.

-

_July 31, 2003_

Laura and Derek are waiting for her at the bus stop when Cora gets back. Teddy is with them, eight years old and swinging his and Laura's hands back and forth. Cora sees them standing there, all of them so young and Derek so relaxed, no hint of the haunted expression he'll wear years from now. She wants to cry because Laura's dead and Teddy's eight years old and he'll never get to go to college like Laura. 

"Hey," Laura calls out, waving with her free hand.

"Cora," Teddy says, jumping up and down. "Hi."

Derek, the idiot, doesn't say anything, just stands there with his hands in the pocket of his jeans, trying to look cool. Cora wants to punch him in the face and hug him at the same time. She wants to tease him until he jumps at her and they get in trouble. She wants so much at once and she's just standing there, looking at them as though they'll disappear if she doesn't stare hard enough.

"Wow," Derek says. "Must have been some trip if she can't even talk."

That drags Cora out of her thoughts. "Shut up, Derek," she says. 

Laura stares pointedly at Teddy who's grinning. 

"Where's mom?" Cora asks, ignoring Laura's warning look. 

"Mad that she couldn't be here," Laura says, as they start walking. "But the pack in Seattle has two alphas and can't decide if they should kill each other or just separate into two. Mom's there because it makes her look good, and because they invited her by name, and some law of the old dead alphas says she has to be there or bad things happen."

"Mom's too nice," Derek says, kicking at the rocks in the dirt.

Cora tries not to look as though she's staring at him. Now that she knows what to look for, and now that she knows about Paige, Cora can see that Derek's not as happy as he used to be. There's something about the way he walks now, a little hunched in on himself, that speaks to some sort of pain. 

Cora wants to tell him that she knows about Paige, but this Derek isn't the one she just met. Her Derek would probably run away and never speak to Cora again, so she won't say anything. But if she's a bit nicer to him from now on, well, it's not like anyone is going to notice.

-

Laura corners Cora as soon as Derek and Teddy wander off to watch TV.

"What is it?" Laura asks.

"Nothing," Cora says, automatically.

Laura just raises an eyebrow and Cora sighs. "Just promise me you'll take care of him," she says. "He's not doing so good in the future."

Laura, by now, knows better than to ask why. The whole Hale family has learned that whatever Peter, Cora, and Derek may see belongs to them alone and if they want to share they will. If they don't, no one has a right to make them. 

For once, Cora is glad that's the way things are.

-

_January 4, 2004_

The sheriff is at a car accident, holding the hand of a young woman while his wife is dying at Beacon Hills Hospital. He doesn't know it then, but later, when he closes the lid on his wife's casket, he'll blame himself for it. Years later, when he's on the verge of losing his son, he'll remember this moment and ask himself why he didn't just stay with Claudia until the end.

-

Stiles is nine-years-old and his mother is dead. 

He sits in the orange, plastic hospital chair outside of his mother's room holding a cup of iced water. She'd asked him if he could get her some and Stiles hadn't seen the pitcher next to her bed. He doesn't understand until much later that his mother would have found a way to get him out of the room even if he'd noticed the pitcher.

He's nine-years-old and he can't think of anything but the fact that his mother is dead. There are doctors rushing around him, nurses who spare him a pitying glance on their way into his mother's room. No one will look at him too long and Melissa McCall is at home today. Stiles's dad is working and he's alone, outside of his dead mother's hospital room.

He sits with his head down over the glass of iced water in his hand. He counts the beats of his heart like his mother taught him, anything to distract himself. He's on fifty-five when someone—probably one of the doctor's—stops in front of him.

"Hey," the man says, and Stiles doesn't look up because it's not his dad.

For a moment, the doctor says nothing and then, he kneels in front of Stiles and hugs him.

It fixes nothing, but Stiles cries anyway because his mother is dead and his father isn't here, and this doctor is the only one who will touch him.

-

_September 8, 2004_

Derek meets Kate Argent in the fall of his junior year. She's his English teacher and she's beautiful. From the moment she walks into the classroom, Derek can't stop looking at her long blonde hair and the way she smiles as though she knows things Derek can't even begin to imagine. She stares back almost as much as Derek stares at her. Derek is sixteen but he's not stupid. He knows what it means that she stares so much.

-

_2004 / 2011_

  
_November 11, 2004_

Derek's mom doesn't want him to go to school on the day he's supposed to disappear, but Derek has basketball practice and Kate is waiting for him. He tells his mom that he'll be careful, that as soon as he feels anything, he'll lock himself in the bathroom or in an empty classroom. Cora says he better not and because Derek hates listening to Cora, he goes.

-

_2011_

It happens too fast for Derek to feel anything. He's late to practice and he's changing in the locker room one minute, and the next, he's opening his eyes and Kate is there. There are more wrinkles around Kate's eyes but Derek would recognize her anywhere. She's still beautiful, looking at Derek as though he's everything she's been missing. 

"Hey Der," she says, and it's the same way she says his name back home. 

"Hi," Derek says, something warm spreading through his chest at the idea that seven years later, he and Kate still know each other. 

"I need your help," she says, and she could ask for whatever she wanted, Derek would give it to her. 

-

The house isn't there when Derek goes to see it, what's left of it lies in piles on the Hale property. As he comes to a stop in front of the ruins, Derek pats himself down for a cellphone, even though part of him knows he isn't carrying one. His hands are shaking when he finds nothing. He starts pacing, hands reaching out to touch the pieces he can reach as though that'll make it more real.

 _Peter_ , he thinks. He has to get to Peter.

-

The alpha, Scott, tells Derek that his parents are fine and Derek believes him because Scott is the alpha and that means he has to protect the betas in Beacon Hills. Scott says that the Hale family moved away and Peter's not around to tell Derek who's lying. 

-

At the end of that first day, Derek knows two things. One, Cora and Peter are definitely alive, and two, Stiles is the most annoying person Derek has met so far in his life. 

-

At the end of the first week, Derek knows about Kate and the Hale fire. He repeats the date Peter gave him over and over in his head until there's a constant stream of _June 25, 2005_. He says it aloud whenever he can so that when he gets back, he won't forget. He writes it on the papers in Scott's room, on his arm when he can't find a notebook. 

When Scott calls for help, Derek runs away from Kate, from Peter, from the money that's in the Hale vault. Derek doesn't want to think about how that's all that's left of his family now. 

-

_2004_

The jump back is a relief, painless like the first one had been. He closes his eyes against the pressure all over his body, says the date over and over.

When he gets back, his mother hands him the notebook and Derek opens it. On the very first page the words, "Don't trust Kate," stand out stark against the white paper. He reads them over and over. He wants to cry, to yell at his mother for not giving him the book sooner. 

-

Derek tells Talia that there will be a fire and she doesn't have the heart to tell him that if he's already seen it, the fire is going to happen no matter what they do. He looks at her with wide scared eyes and she knows he's hiding something, even though he doesn't tell her what. 

"It'll be fine," she tells Derek, pulling him into a hug so that he won't see her face.

She's made peace with her future but her children shouldn't have to. Part of Talia wants to tell them so that they know, so that they do the things they want to and never have regrets. But she sees them and she sees Laura, beautiful and loved by everyone who talks to her. She watches Cora, quieter than before she jumped and Talia knows Cora knows, but she hasn't said anything and Talia won't be the first one to. She sees Teddy, so trusting, so full of life and a future he won't get to have, and Talia wants to scream, but she has children and they need her. And because they need her, she won't tell them. She won't ruin their lives that way.

-

_June 17, 2005_

Cora knows about the fire but she doesn't know the date. Some part of her thinks that maybe their mother knows because she gets quieter and more tense as the year goes on. Derek says less, doesn't stay out as late as he used to. Only Laura, Peter, and their father act as though nothing has changed, and Cora doesn't know if it's because they don't know or if they're just better at pretending. 

-

_September 4, 2026_

Cora wakes up because someone is shaking her shoulder. She opens her eyes and sees light eyes watching her as though she's going to disappear any second. She sits up and there's Derek, older than Cora's ever seen him. He's grinning at her, tucking her against his chest as soon as she sits up.

She doesn't know who starts crying first, but they've both dried their tears by the time they let go of each other. 

"So," she says, looking him over. "Where's Stiles?"

Derek just looks at her, and Cora wants to cry when she notices how relaxed Derek looks, how he's taken to wearing sweaters she only ever associated with their father. The sadness she saw in him when he was twenty-three is gone and Cora knows, though she can't say how, that Stiles is somehow responsible.

"Are you guys married yet?" she asks, because she doesn't have time. They never have enough time.

"What?" Derek asks, and the surprise on his face makes Cora laugh. 

"So you _aren't_ married?" she asks, standing up and looking around the room she's in.

The walls are a soft pastel yellow and the carpet is dark blue. There's a small bed in the corner furthest from the door behind Cora. The sheets are dark green with little wolves. Cora doesn't need anyone to tell her that Stiles is the one who picked them out. But the bed is too small and the dressers too pretty for this to be Derek and Stiles's room.

"You have a baby," she says, voice hoarse.

Derek says something but Cora doesn't hear it over the roar in her ears. She wants to swallow past the lump in her throat and can't. There's a baby. Derek has a baby and Cora wants to go back home and hug her brother, wants to tell her parents that it's all okay, that Laura doesn't have to try so hard because Derek's going to be fine. His life turns out better than Cora thought because he's happy and even if he's not married, there's a baby and Cora has never seen Derek look more proud than when he nods.

"Her name's Erica," he says.

"You dumbass," Cora says, punching Derek on the shoulder. "How come you didn't bring her with you?"

"You scared her," Derek says. "She was the one who found you."

"Can I see her?"

But Derek's already leaving the room. Cora sits back down on the floor and hugs her knees to her chest. Her heart is beating loud in her ears and Cora's so afraid that she's going to jump back before she can see Erica.

She's still sitting there when Derek comes back, holding the hand of a little girl with curly blonde hair and big brown eyes. She's so tiny Cora is almost afraid to touch her, but the little girl takes one look at her and jumps into Cora's lap. She opens her arms and she doesn't know what Derek told Erica, but Cora isn't going to ask.

She hugs the little girl close. It's been a long time since Cora held a baby and she'd never thought she'd get the chance to hold Derek's. 

"Hey princess," she says to the top of Erica's head. "How are you?"

"Okay," Erica says, in her high pitched two-year-old voice.

"She's beautiful," Cora says to Derek, and she doesn't know how to tell him that she's so proud of him and that she loves him more than he can ever possibly imagine.

Derek gets it though because his smile is a little sadder when Cora looks at him.

"Is it close?" Cora asks, holding little Erica tighter.

Derek looks her over, at the red t-shirt Cora stole from Derek's closet that morning. "Today," he says. "Your today."

And Cora doesn't know what she expected, but it wasn't that.

"You stayed home from school because mom wanted you where she could watch you when you jumped. Teddy was sick and Laura was fixing some paperwork at her college," Derek says, and it sounds so rehearsed, as though he's told this story many times now. "I was at school because I thought I knew when it was going to happen. Peter told me when it happened back when I was fifteen, so I thought I knew, and I wanted to know why Kate did it."

Derek breaks off when Erica turns in Cora's arms to look at her father.

"She laughed in my face," Derek says. "When I got back to the house, it was over."

"She was a bitch," Cora says, then makes an apologetic face at Erica who laughs.

"We're going to have a boy," Derek says into the following silence. "He's going to be a year younger than Erica. His name's going to be Boyd."

Cora looks down at the little girl in her arms and imagines a little boy holding her hand and laughing with her, happy and safe. 

"Is it Stiles?" she asks, because she just wants to make sure, wants to know everything she can about Derek before she has to go.

"Yeah," Derek says. "He's with his dad right now."

Cora shifts on the floor, stretches out her legs in front of her. She can feel the beginning of pins and needles in her left leg and the familiar tugging at the back of her head is starting. She holds Erica closer and reaches out for Derek's hand. He looks at her, worried when she squeezes hard enough to bruise. 

"Are you happy?" she asks. 

Derek looks at her, his eyes taking in her face. She does the same because they both know this is the last time they'll see each other. 

"Yes," he tells her, and Cora has to close her eyes against the rush of relief in her chest.

"Okay," she says. "Okay."

They sit together, the three of them on Erica's carpeted floor. She's a smart girl, Cora thinks, because she hasn't moved. It's as though she can sense that this is an important moment for her father. And Cora is only sad that she's never going to see little Boyd.

"When you see Stiles, tell him that if he ever makes you sad, I'm going to come back and kick his ass."

"I will," Derek says.

The next time Cora closes her eyes, she jumps.

-

_June 17, 2004_

Cora opens her eyes to her mother's tired face, and Cora wants to hit herself for not saying anything about the fire. All of them did this the wrong way, and Cora wishes she could take it all back, wishes she could tell her younger self that it's better to say everything, that secrets are what kill in a family like theirs. 

"Mom," she says, as soon as she can talk. "It's okay. He's fine. He has a baby and a husband and he's going to be okay."

Talia says nothing for a moment and then she sighs and she's hugging Cora. It's today, but Cora doesn't know how to tell her mother that Peter lied to Derek, that Kate Argent is the one who kills them. 

"Where's Teddy?" she asks, instead. "What time is it?"

"Five," her mother says. "Teddy's in the basement with your father and Peter."

"We have to get out of the house," Cora says.

It turns out that her mother does know because she doesn't ask Cora to explain. She takes off down the stairs and Cora follows her, part of her knowing it's too late and the other part refusing to give up. 

They meet Peter on his way up from the basement and Talia tells him to run, to get out of the house. There's screaming from the basement and Cora remembers that her grandparents are visiting. She's panting by the time she gets to the bottom of the stairs. Peter is right next to her, yelling as the first bottle comes in through the bars in the basement window and bursts into flames in front of her. 

-

_Early 2011_

Stiles doesn't trust Derek because he's related to Peter, because he would have killed Lydia if she were the kanima, because Derek turned Erica and Boyd and Isaac, and because of a lot of other reasons that aren't all Derek's fault. It's just easier to get through all the things that have happened since Scott got bitten by Peter Hale if Stiles has someone he can blame. He'll grow out of it eventually, just like Derek apparently grew out of being angry that Peter killed his sister. 

It's harsh thinking about it that way, and Scott wouldn't like it if Stiles told him, but it's what Lydia thinks. It's what Allison thinks too even if she doesn't say it aloud because Allison loved Kate, but she wouldn't have welcomed her back into her home if Peter hadn't killed her. Stiles doesn't think Derek should have taken Peter back either, especially once Peter apparently came back from the dead. 

Dead people don't come back and if they do, it isn't normal. It's funny, Stiles sometimes thinks, that despite all the supernatural things they've seen, people coming back to life is the one that bothers him the most. 

Although, if he really thinks about it, Stiles knows why.

-

_April 8/9, 2011_

Scott and Allison break up before summer break and Stiles is a good friend so he gets Lydia to help him sneak as much alcohol as they can into the punch at Stiles's birthday party. 

"I know it doesn't do anything for you, but it's the thought that counts, right?" Stiles asks Scott the day of the party.

Scott just rolls his eyes and Stiles stares after him in mock-offense. It's a Friday and there's loud music, too much alcohol and not enough adult supervision. Scott, who doesn't drink, either because he can't get drunk or because he's being overly responsible, makes sure everyone gets in a cab and that Stiles makes it to bed. 

The next morning, Stiles wakes up pressed between his bedroom wall and Scott. He shoves Scott over to the middle of the bed and gets out. Scott makes a small annoyed noise but doesn't wake up. Stiles would wake him up, but he's got a hangover and Scott would only use that to his advantage so he sneaks out of the bedroom and into the bathroom.

Stiles takes his time brushing his teeth and waking up properly. It's too early for a shower and he doesn't have a mess of hair to keep clean like Scott does. 

When Stiles finally starts his way down to the living room, he doesn't exactly expect a mess, just something out of place enough for his dad to notice. There's nothing, though, and Stiles sends a silent "thank you" to Scott and probably Lydia for fixing things up. He throws himself down on the old, black couch that's probably older than Stiles is. He's feeling miserable, arm over his eyes, when there's a knock at the front door. 

"No," Stiles says, groaning even as there's a second knock. "Go away."

There's a fourth knock before Stiles gets up to open the door. He complains all the way to the entrance and pulls the door open without bothering to check who it is.

"What?" he asks, blinking away the burst of sunlight.

"Can I come in?" It's Derek.

"No," Stiles says, but he's walking out into the front porch, wishing he'd brought a hoodie to hide from the sun. "My dad's inside and I'm not exactly sure I'm allowed to bring ex-suspected murderers into the house."

"I forgot you used to shave your head," Derek says, instead of anything that makes sense.

"What? You don't seem me in like, two days, and suddenly you forget what I look like?"

Stiles is expecting a smart comeback, but Derek doesn't say anything for a suspicious amount of time. When Stiles glances up, Derek is smiling. Stiles stares because he doesn't ever remember Derek smiling. Smirking, yes. But never smiling.

"What's happening?" Stiles asks, panicking slightly. "Are you okay? Is there someone watching us?"

"It was your birthday yesterday, right?" Derek asks.

Stiles narrows his eyes at Derek and leans forward to look out at the street. There's no one outside and Stiles can't even see Derek's car. 

"Did you run here?" he asks. "Please tell me you didn't run here. This is not a good morning for weird supernatural creatures to be attacking."

Derek looks like he's going to say something, but Stiles takes a good look at him and he may start freaking out a little. He's hungover and Derek is wearing a gray cardigan.

"Why?" Stiles asks, gesturing at Derek.

"You bought it for me as a joke," Derek says. "I wear it sometimes to annoy you."

Stiles is so not ready for Derek's bullshit this morning because he would never buy Derek presents. They're not friends. They don't even like each other. Stiles once held Derek up for an hour in a swimming pool so he wouldn't drown and Derek _still_ doesn't like Stiles. Derek once stopped Isaac from mauling Stiles, and _Stiles_ still doesn't trust him.

"Can we go somewhere?" Derek asks. "This will make more sense when I explain it to you."

"No," Stiles says, automatically.

He knows better than to go places with strange men. Gerard happened not too long ago and Peter happened to Scott. Then Chris Argent and Allison's mom. Kate. Derek may not be as crazy as them but he's still a stranger and he's acting weird on top of it, and Stiles is not going to end up in someone else's basement. 

"Come on, Stiles," Derek says, but he's not dragging Stiles away like he could and like Stiles half-expects.

"No," Stiles says again, trying to take a subtle step back towards the door. "Whatever it is just tell me here."

This time it's Derek who looks around, down the street and towards the door behind Stiles. "Okay," he says, shoving a beautifully wrapped rectangular package at Stiles. "Happy Birthday."

Stiles stares at the thing in his hands. "I didn't know you had such awesome gift-wrapping skills," he says, because what else is Stiles supposed to say? "I might have to make you wrap all my gifts this year."

"They did it at the store." 

"Ah," Stiles says, nodding. 

He's still looking down at the gift in his hands, but at least now he knows for a fact that there's something wrong with Derek.

"Okay," Stiles says. "Not that I don't appreciate the thought, but I'm going to wake up Scott now."

"Don't," Derek says, reaching out a hand to stop Stiles.

Stiles tenses, not exactly expecting pain, but he's just never sure with Derek. For his part, Derek looks equally as horrified, and Stiles doesn't know at what because Derek obviously has the upper hand here. 

"I time tra...jump," Derek says, dropping his hands.

And now Stiles gets it. 

"You time travel," he says, voice flat. "Okay, I get it. Was it Erica? Did she think it would be funny to dress you in a cardigan and have you drop off presents for me?"

Derek shakes his head.

"So Isaac then?" Stiles asks, not letting Derek interrupt. "I doubt it was Boyd. He just doesn't seem the type, you know, what with him being all silent and broody. Kind of like you, actually."

"Stiles," Derek starts.

"Anyway, whatever you guys think this is—"

"Stiles," Derek says again, more firmly. 

"What?" Stiles asks, annoyed now.

"I'm not lying," Derek says, trying to catch Stiles's eyes without touching him. "I do time travel. Jump. I'm twenty-five and you and I are actually friends."

Stiles stares, disbelieving, at Derek.

"I don't know how it happened either," Derek says. "You told me—"

"I told you?"

"You in 2013," Derek explains, and it must make sense to him because he keeps going. "You told me to tell you about your mom. You said you'd believe me."

"Tell me what about my mom?" Stiles asks, quiet and suddenly angry.

"You told me that when she died, she sent you to get her a glass of water, like she knew that she was going to go and she didn't want you to see her," Derek pauses, and Stiles doesn't know if he wants to hit him or ask him to keep going. "You said that everyone just walked by you and your dad wasn't there. But there was a doctor who told you everything was going to be okay. He hugged you and you don't even know his name."

"Scott told you," Stiles says when he can speak.

"Scott doesn't know," Derek says.

Stiles can't look at him. He looks down at the gift-wrapped box in his hands and wishes he'd never opened the door. Stiles knows there's no way Derek can possibly know that about him because Stiles never told anyone. He never told his dad even when the sheriff got to the hospital and wanted to know everything.

"Okay," Stiles says through the lump in his throat. "Say I believe you."

He looks up for a second and Derek nods at him.

"What are you doing here?" Stiles asks.

Derek shrugs. "I don't know. No one really knows how it works. I'm just here."

"And the present?"

Derek grins and it's less frightening now that Stiles has seen him do it multiple times. It looks good on Derek's face, eases some of the tension that's so characteristic of the Derek Stiles knows. Now that he's looking, Stiles can see small differences even in the way Derek holds himself, as though this Derek in front of him isn't hiding anymore. 

"You told me I had to buy it for you," Derek says. "You were very specific about what it had to be too. You had me memorize all the details the same day I jumped."

"So when you say jump," Stiles says, genuinely curious. "You mean when you time travel?"

Derek nods. 

"And I made you get me this?" Stiles asks, shaking the gift. He hears rattling and he raises an eyebrow at Derek.

"You use it a lot," he says.

Stiles shakes the present again just for something to do. He's not exactly sure what's supposed to happen now. He assumes that this Derek isn't going to stay but he doesn't know the etiquette for time-traveling werewolves either.

"Hey," Derek says. 

Stiles looks up.

"Whatever happens," Derek says, suddenly serious. "We're good friends now. We trust each other."

Stiles hears what Derek isn't saying. He understands that Derek means "trust me."

-

Stiles doesn't open the gift Derek gave him until Scott's gone for the day and he's alone in his room. He's still not sure he didn't dream the whole thing up, but the present is still there under his bed where he left it after Derek literally disappeared in front of him.

Stiles isn't careful with the wrapping. He pulls off chunks of blue birthday paper until he's looking at a chessboard. He pulls it out of the box and sets it on his desk. It's a wooden set with half of the pieces colored dark brown. The board folds in half and locks with a brass clasp.

Stiles keeps it on his desk from then on.

-

_April 15, 2011_

It's a Friday afternoon and Stiles just wants to crawl into bed and sleep for the next three days. Beacon Hills has been calm and Stiles fully intends to take advantage of that. He's already imagining how soft his bed will be when he unlocks the front door. He's so exhausted that he doesn't even notice the man standing by his bed until he turns the lights on.

"What the fuck?" he says, backing out of the room.

He trips in his hurry but the man doesn't move.

"Sorry," the man says."It's me. It's Derek."

Stiles pauses long enough to take a good look at the man in his room. The man looks like Derek, but he's older, somewhere in his early fifties, gray hair mixed in with his darker hair. There are wrinkles around the man's eyes and along the corners of his mouth, but it's Derek.

"So I didn't dream the time-traveling then?" Stiles asks, standing up, but not moving closer.

His heart is still beating hard against his chest, and Derek must hear it because he doesn't move. 

"No, you didn't dream it."

Stiles nods and brushes himself off, trying to calm the shaking in his hands. "So, is this going to be a thing now?" Stiles asks. "The visiting me every week because if so, I'd like a list of time and place so that you don't give me a heart attack next time I see you."

Derek shakes his head. "Just one more that I know of. May 1st. In your room again. I'll be pacing by the window and you'll be coming out the shower. Don't freak out."

"Oh good," Stiles says. "Thanks for helping me avoid all that unnecessary embarrassment."

Derek grins at him. "I forget how young you used to be."

"Yeah," Stiles says looking down at himself. "But I guess everything probably looks young to you."

Derek laughs. "You're also more of an asshole at this age," he says.

"Aw," Stiles says. "You mean that changes?"

"The kids made you nicer," Derek says.

"The kids?" Stiles asks. 

He doesn't know if he wants to know exactly what Derek is talking about, but he's also morbidly curious. He wants Derek to tell him everything. Stiles would ask him for winning lotto numbers if he thought Derek would give them to him.

"We're married," Derek says.

Stiles stares, mouth hanging open.

"Shit," Derek says, finally moving from his spot by Stiles's bed. "I wasn't supposed to tell you."

"We're married?" Stiles asks at the same time Derek sinks down onto Stiles's bed.

Stiles looks at him from his spot by the bedroom door. It's suddenly too hot in the room, the space between them too small. Stiles is half-flattered that someone as good looking as Derek would end up married to him, but part of him is also creeped out.

It must show on his face because Derek sighs and looks away. "I miss you," Derek says. "My you. Older you."

Stiles gets that. He understands that he's not this Derek's Stiles, and this Derek is definitely not the Derek Stiles knows.

"How long have you been gone?" Stiles asks.

Derek glances at the alarm clock on the windowsill next to Stiles's bed. "Two hours," he says. "But I never know how long it'll be back home."

"I'm sorry," Stiles says, because there's nothing else he can say.

Stiles sort of wants to hug this older version of Derek but he doesn't know if he's allowed. So he just takes a seat next to Derek on the bed, and stares at the dark gray carpet. 

"So the kids?" Stiles asks.

Derek smiles, wistfully, next to him. "They're beautiful," he says.

That's all he says and Stiles doesn't know how to ask what he wants to know. Instead, he says, "you really don't like answering questions, do you?"

"I do," Derek assures him. "Go ahead. Ask."

"When do we," he pauses, unsure of what he wants to ask. "When does all of this, me and you, when does that happen?"

"When it's time, you'll know," Derek says, and this time he's outright smirking at Stiles. 

Stiles flips him off and Derek's still laughing when he disappears.

-

_May 1, 2011_

On May 1st, Stiles promises himself that he's not going to shower, that no matter what happens, he's going to show himself and Derek that the future isn't set in stone. He's going to prove to himself that this nonsense about marrying Derek is just some crazy hallucination of Older Derek.

It goes fine because even though they have a lacrosse game, Finstock puts Stiles on the bench. Except, Danny gets hit too hard by some idiot from the other team and Stiles ends up on the field in the middle of a brawl. There are the usual pushes and by the end of the game, Stiles is so dirty even he can't stand himself.

He's still cursing the other team when he steps into the shower back home. It's not until he's running a hand over his buzzcut that he realizes he could have just taken a shower at school.

"Perfect," he mutters to himself as he makes his way to his room.

"You better not be standing by the window like an insane person," Stiles calls into his room as he pushes the door open.

Derek is by the window but he isn't standing. He's pacing, hands in the pocket of his jeans. He looks up when Stiles comes in and visibly tenses.

"What?" Stiles asks, not even bothered anymore.

He throws himself down on his bed, muscles sore from the game, and wishes he didn't have to move. He sits up though because Derek looks like he's about three seconds away from jumping out of Stiles's window.

"What's wrong with you?" Stiles asks. 

Derek just makes his pacing circle bigger and hands Stiles a little velvet box. Inside is a gold band and Stiles can't help his mocking smile.

"Are you proposing to me?" he asks, fully expecting Derek to laugh at him.

Derek stops pacing and gives Stiles a pained look.

"Oh shit," Stiles says. " _Oh shit_. You're proposing. How old are you? How old am I?"

"Thirty-five," Derek says. "You're twenty-nine."

And just like that, it's hilarious again. 

"Wow," Stiles says. "Over ten years later and you still suck."

Derek rolls his eyes, and this thirty-five-year-old Derek is closer to the Derek Stiles knows than the other two have been. It's reassuring in some way, that despite the years, Derek will still be the same asshole he was at twenty-three.

"Just do it," Stiles says. "It's not like I say no."

Derek goes a little wild-eyed at that and because Stiles doesn't know what to do, he asks, "I guess this means I have to be nice to asshole you, huh?"

Derek exhales and it almost sounds like a laugh. "I can't believe that asking you to marry me was freaking me out," he says.

"Rude," Stiles answers, lying down properly on his bed.

There's silence for so long that Stiles thinks Derek might have gone back to his time. He half-sits and sees Derek watching him.

"I don't hate you," Derek says before Stiles can tell him how creepy that is. "I just don't know you yet."

Stiles shrugs. "We fight supernatural creatures together and we love Scott," he says. "We would probably get along."

"Yeah," Derek says. "We would."

By the time Derek disappears, Stiles still isn't sure if he's flattered or really creeped out that he and Derek end up together.

-

_Late 2011_

Stiles has seen three different Derek's over the summer and all of them said the same thing in different ways. They said that Stiles was going to end up trusting Derek so much that he'd marry him. And Stiles doesn't know when he's supposed to start trusting Derek or with what, not until Jennifer Blake kidnaps his father.

Then, Stiles stands next to Scott, tears rolling down his face, and he asks Derek to believe him, to trust him. When Derek does, when Derek asks Jennifer Blake to tell him where she took Stiles's father, Stiles knows this is where it begins.

Even when his father is safe and Derek leaves with Cora, Stiles knows that Derek will be back. When the nightmares start, Stiles knows he can trust Derek to stop him, just in case Scott can't. And if Derek himself doesn't know yet, it's okay, because by the time Stiles is twenty-nine, they'll have it figured out.


End file.
